1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a mobile terminal, and more particularly to a method for inputting characters or numbers using a touch screen provided on a mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile terminals generally refer to handheld devices used for data transmissions or wireless communications. These devices include cellular phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Personal Communication Services (PCS) phones, International Mobile Telecommunication-2000 (IMT-2000) terminals and Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) terminals.
Mobile terminals have attained worldwide popularity as a necessity for people of all ages. Mobile terminals are now becoming smaller, sleeker and lighter to improve portability, and are also implementing various multimedia functions and services.
In particular, mobile terminals are changing to become multifunctional, multipurpose and multimedia devices. Mobile terminals are expected to be modified to meet various multimedia and Internet environments.
Among a diversity of additional functions available in mobile terminals, Short Message Service (SMS) is a tremendously popular function, which allows mobile users to send or receive text messages. Early stage SMS enabled users to input only alphabetic characters or numbers. However, symbols and special characters can now also be input in SMS messages.
In order to input an SMS message in a mobile terminal provided with a touch screen, a user has to touch every required character on the touch screen. It is cumbersome to repeatedly touch a touch screen. Also, frequent finger touches can damage a touch screen.
In addition, as size of mobile terminals becomes smaller, a limitation is occurring in displaying all characters or numbers on one touch screen.